Rememberist
@rememberist.bsky.social
Owner/bookseller at Berkeley Books of Paris (2005-2019). Veteran of St. Mark's Bookshop and Posman's in NYC, and Serendipity Books in Berkeley.
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Plus I think more women should have swords.
February 8, 2026 at 5:20 PM
Plus I think more women should have swords.
Back in my bookshop days, I often said that pocketbooks are the perfect technology. It's still true. Today's reading, and a few pics of my collection:
February 8, 2026 at 9:34 AM
Back in my bookshop days, I often said that pocketbooks are the perfect technology. It's still true. Today's reading, and a few pics of my collection:
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fatal to the last degree of fatality; those repeated disastrous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors upon Moby Dick
February 6, 2026 at 5:47 PM
fatal to the last degree of fatality; those repeated disastrous repulses, all accumulating and piling their terrors upon Moby Dick
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Always great to see so many browsers out and about in Grasmere this time of the year.
February 6, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Always great to see so many browsers out and about in Grasmere this time of the year.
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Rain Light ~ W. S. Merwin
February 1, 2026 at 12:51 PM
Rain Light ~ W. S. Merwin
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Fascinating (and long) piece on John Cheever and the art of the New Yorker short story
January 31, 2026 at 4:22 PM
Fascinating (and long) piece on John Cheever and the art of the New Yorker short story
Remembering my brilliant philosophy professor. She had a dog, Henry, who was half-wolf. She reminded me of Kafka, if Kafka had been a neurotic Italian-American outta Boston.
Women & the Art of Revolution
Knowledge of the Sacred
Women and Power
Loves Sacred and Profane
Philosophy of the Irrational
Women & the Art of Revolution
Knowledge of the Sacred
Women and Power
Loves Sacred and Profane
Philosophy of the Irrational
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Probabilistic Systems Analysis
Statistical Thinking and Data Analysis
Competition in Telecommunications
Introduction to Clowning
Autonomous Robot Design
Probabilistic Systems Analysis
Statistical Thinking and Data Analysis
Competition in Telecommunications
Introduction to Clowning
Autonomous Robot Design
Never mind the jobs you had, tell me five classes you took in college:
Drugs and the brain
Offensive Literature
Intro to Geobiology
Track and field
The Supreme Court in US History
Drugs and the brain
Offensive Literature
Intro to Geobiology
Track and field
The Supreme Court in US History
January 31, 2026 at 8:20 AM
Remembering my brilliant philosophy professor. She had a dog, Henry, who was half-wolf. She reminded me of Kafka, if Kafka had been a neurotic Italian-American outta Boston.
Women & the Art of Revolution
Knowledge of the Sacred
Women and Power
Loves Sacred and Profane
Philosophy of the Irrational
Women & the Art of Revolution
Knowledge of the Sacred
Women and Power
Loves Sacred and Profane
Philosophy of the Irrational
When I left Paris for the countryside, a brilliant artist told me she regretted not spending more time in my bookshop. To console herself and give me a parting gift, Jena Pham Selle designed a LEGO set. For #InternationalLegoDay here's my old bookshop in bricks. That's me in the stripey shirt.
January 28, 2026 at 9:26 AM
When I left Paris for the countryside, a brilliant artist told me she regretted not spending more time in my bookshop. To console herself and give me a parting gift, Jena Pham Selle designed a LEGO set. For #InternationalLegoDay here's my old bookshop in bricks. That's me in the stripey shirt.
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Today is #InternationalLegoDay so here's Robert Leighton as Lego minifigure, & smallest book in Dunblane's historic Leighton Library beside #Lego minifigure - book is "De imitatione Christi" by Thomas a Kempis. Robert Leighton made many notes in this book - in tiny handwriting
January 28, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Today is #InternationalLegoDay so here's Robert Leighton as Lego minifigure, & smallest book in Dunblane's historic Leighton Library beside #Lego minifigure - book is "De imitatione Christi" by Thomas a Kempis. Robert Leighton made many notes in this book - in tiny handwriting
Count Basie at the bandshell in Grant Park when I was a tiny tot in Chicago. My mom took me there because she was impossibly cool.
January 11, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Count Basie at the bandshell in Grant Park when I was a tiny tot in Chicago. My mom took me there because she was impossibly cool.
From The Oxford Book of American Verse, edited by F. O. Matthiessen
January 10, 2026 at 6:41 PM
From The Oxford Book of American Verse, edited by F. O. Matthiessen
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📚 drop a comment if you do👇🏻
January 10, 2026 at 6:02 PM
📚 drop a comment if you do👇🏻
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We got here because white supremacy and misogyny are not tied to age. Fascism has never been something that would die out by ignoring it. It's the political equivalent of ivy, mint, and kudzu. Only less useful. It spreads endlessly, working on expanding every crack in every wall. We must uproot it
January 10, 2026 at 2:46 PM
We got here because white supremacy and misogyny are not tied to age. Fascism has never been something that would die out by ignoring it. It's the political equivalent of ivy, mint, and kudzu. Only less useful. It spreads endlessly, working on expanding every crack in every wall. We must uproot it
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The antidote to both apathy and despair is action. Doing anything is better than nothing. You’ve got this.
January 8, 2026 at 11:17 AM
The antidote to both apathy and despair is action. Doing anything is better than nothing. You’ve got this.
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#OnThisDay, 4 Jan 1944, Anne-Marie Walters parachutes into France as a British Special Operations Executive agent. SOE supported the French Resistance to Nazi occupation.
In Aug 1944 she escapes over the Pyrenees. She writes a book about her work.
#WorldWar2 #WomenInHistory #WomensHistory 🗃️
In Aug 1944 she escapes over the Pyrenees. She writes a book about her work.
#WorldWar2 #WomenInHistory #WomensHistory 🗃️
January 4, 2026 at 9:00 AM
#OnThisDay, 4 Jan 1944, Anne-Marie Walters parachutes into France as a British Special Operations Executive agent. SOE supported the French Resistance to Nazi occupation.
In Aug 1944 she escapes over the Pyrenees. She writes a book about her work.
#WorldWar2 #WomenInHistory #WomensHistory 🗃️
In Aug 1944 she escapes over the Pyrenees. She writes a book about her work.
#WorldWar2 #WomenInHistory #WomensHistory 🗃️
In the early 90s I was a house manager at the Public Theater in NYC. During the intermission of a play, Jackie O approached me in the lobby and asked for directions to the ladies' room.
Right folks. Feeling rather down at the moment so bringing back an oldie
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
Please Quote this with your most minor celebrity interaction
December 29, 2025 at 9:12 PM
In the early 90s I was a house manager at the Public Theater in NYC. During the intermission of a play, Jackie O approached me in the lobby and asked for directions to the ladies' room.
When French farmers protest, there are cookouts, bonfires, plenty of vin chaud, and neat stunts like this motocross champion jumping over tractors. There's joy in this resistance.
December 24, 2025 at 8:55 PM
When French farmers protest, there are cookouts, bonfires, plenty of vin chaud, and neat stunts like this motocross champion jumping over tractors. There's joy in this resistance.
The little free library in a nearby town is pretty wild. Found this treasure there a few days ago, and it reminded me of finding Kathy Acker's essays and A Confederacy of Dunces in a stationery store in Casablanca.
December 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM
The little free library in a nearby town is pretty wild. Found this treasure there a few days ago, and it reminded me of finding Kathy Acker's essays and A Confederacy of Dunces in a stationery store in Casablanca.
Reposted by Rememberist
December 7, 2025 at 4:03 AM
Every summer, a lady of a certain age would arrive in Paris and stay in the hotel right across the street from my bookshop. Once she settled in, she'd fling open her windows and call out my name punctuated by a YOO HOO! I'd go to my front step, wave, and welcome her to town.
Check out the trailer for Nathan Silver’s touching short documentary CAROL & JOY. Coming to Criterion Channel on 12/1!
November 25, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Every summer, a lady of a certain age would arrive in Paris and stay in the hotel right across the street from my bookshop. Once she settled in, she'd fling open her windows and call out my name punctuated by a YOO HOO! I'd go to my front step, wave, and welcome her to town.
I went to an estate sale in a nearby village to scout for books. The house belongs to an elderly English lady who has lived in this tiny village for 25 years, and is now moving back home to expire (her words). Judging from various inscriptions and bookmarks I found, her books are very well-traveled.
November 19, 2025 at 9:36 PM
I went to an estate sale in a nearby village to scout for books. The house belongs to an elderly English lady who has lived in this tiny village for 25 years, and is now moving back home to expire (her words). Judging from various inscriptions and bookmarks I found, her books are very well-traveled.
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24hrs in London last Saturday.
November 4, 2025 at 8:33 AM
24hrs in London last Saturday.
Sometimes, on the way to my bookshop, I'd walk down rue Jacob and stand before her old house. I imagined my way into le Temple de l'Amitié. One day, an elderly customer told me his family lived next door to it when he was a boy. He beamed with the memory of the glamorous women of rue Jacob.
#BOTD 1876
Natalie Clifford Barney: American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. Influenced other authors through her salon and writing, often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism.
headstuff.org/culture/hist...
Natalie Clifford Barney: American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. Influenced other authors through her salon and writing, often thematically tied to her lesbianism and feminism.
headstuff.org/culture/hist...
Natalie Clifford Barney, Queen of the Paris Lesbians - HeadStuff
In the early 20th century, Paris was one of the few places where "lesbian culture" flourished. And at the heart of that scene was Natalie Clifford Barney.
headstuff.org
October 31, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Sometimes, on the way to my bookshop, I'd walk down rue Jacob and stand before her old house. I imagined my way into le Temple de l'Amitié. One day, an elderly customer told me his family lived next door to it when he was a boy. He beamed with the memory of the glamorous women of rue Jacob.